Iran's uranium stocks said to be intact, UK media citing European intelligence probe says

Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to be largely intact following US strikes on the country's main nuclear sites, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing European officials.

The newspaper, citing two people briefed on preliminary intelligence assessments, said European capitals believe Iran’s stockpile of 408 kilograms of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels was not being held in Fordow and may have been moved prior to US strikes on Sunday.

Claims that uranium was moved from any of Iran’s nuclear sites were dismissed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday.

"We were watching closely and there was no indication to the United States that any of that enriched uranium was moved," she said.

The initial European intelligence assessment is unlikely to go down well with US President Donald Trump who is currently engaged with a fight with his own spy agencies about the impact of the US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.

On Thursday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the strikes had caused "severe damage" to Iran's nuclear facilities after a leaked report downplayed the extent of the operation.

According to Ratcliffe, key sites had been destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the "course of years."

But he stopped short of supporting Trump's claims that the operation on Iran’s nuclear programme had been a "spectacular military success" that had "obliterated" the facilities.

Trump's claims were supported by Israel's Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) which said on Wednesday that US and Israeli strikes had rendered the Fordow underground enrichment site "inoperable."

In a handout, the IAEC claimed the "devastating" strikes "destroyed the site's critical infrastructure."

The new US intelligence assessment comes a day after a leaked early report from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) played down the extent of the destruction and concluded that key components of Iran's nuclear programme could be restarted in months.

Speaking at the NATO Summit in The Hague on Wednesday, Trump rejected that assessment, insisting that his country's spies did not have the full picture and defended his own conclusion that American bombs and missiles delivered a crushing blow.

"This was a devastating attack and it knocked them for a loop," Trump said as his administration scrambled to support claims he made only hours after the attack.

The impact of the US strikes was also downplayed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In his first public remarks since Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire which brought an end to the 12-day conflict, Khamenei said Trump’s assessment had been "exaggerated."

"They could not achieve anything significant," Khamenei said in a video message broadcast on state television.